The NTT IndyCar Series will return to the Iowa Speedway in Newton for the first time since 2020 on the weekend of July 22 through 24.

Instead of just one race in American open-wheel racing’s top series, race fans will be treated to two this time around. The Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend will consist of a 250-lap race on Saturday, and a 300-lap race on Sunday around the ⅞ mile circuit that is the Iowa Speedway.

The Daily Iowan is here to give you a guide to the weekend consisting of picks, predictions, and storylines to know about beforehand.

Picks

Here are the three drivers who I think have the best chance of winning at least one of the two races set to take place this weekend.

No. 1: Josef Newgarden

This one is pretty obvious. In 10 starts at Iowa, Newgarden has three wins and five podiums.  His most recent two wins at the track came in 2019, and in the second race of the 2020 double-header. Newgarden currently sits fourth in the standings — 44 points behind points leader Marcus Ericsson — and leads the series in wins this year with three. Newgarden is ultra-talented and more than familiar with Iowa. His experience, combined with the edge Chevrolet engines have shown so far this year, make it difficult not to imagine him at least contending for a win this weekend.

No. 2: Alex Palou

While not the best driver on ovals, Palou is easily one of, if not the best driver currently in the IndyCar series. The 2021 champion is currently third in the points with four podiums and no wins so far this year. This is all to say, he’s due. While he didn’t have much success at Iowa when the series came to Newton in his rookie year of 2020, and while there’s a bit of drama regarding who he’ll race for during the 2023 season, Palou isn’t a driver to count out.

No. 3: Scott Dixon

Yes, I know it’s a bit of a copout to pick the man who leads active IndyCar drivers in both wins and championships, with 52 and six respectively. However, it would be dumb of me to not pick Scott Dixon. While the New Zealander has never won at Iowa, he has finished on the podium four times and has an average finish of 6.8 at the track. Furthermore, of his 52 wins, 24 have come at ovals. As Dixon sits fifth in the points, just one championship away from tying A.J. Foyt’s total, he’ll be more than hungry to pick up his second and maybe third win of the season after corralling his first, last week at Toronto.

Storylines

Andretti Autosport Drama

The Andretti Autosport drivers — Romain Grosjean, Alexander Rossi, Devlin DeFrancesco, and Colton Herta — love to run into each other. A lot. Whether it’s Grosjean and Herta squeezing each other off the track, Grosjean running into the back of Herta, Rossi dive bombing DeFrancesco, Rossi understeering into Grosjean, or all of them torpedoing each other all the time, they’ve made their fair share of contact.

Two races ago, at Mid-Ohio, after Grosjean and Rossi had an incident leading both of them to go off track and lose a significant number of positions, Grosjean called Rossi an “idiot.”

On July 17, at Toronto, after contact with DeFrancesco, Grosjean said he wasn’t impressed with how DeFrancesco raced him.

I’m not saying the Andretti drivers hate each other, nor am I saying any one of them is in the wrong. What I am saying is, these teammates like to race each other aggressively.  At a track where speeds get above 180 miles-per-hour, that could spell trouble.

The Championship Battle

With just seven races to go, and Marcus Ericsson leading the championship by 35 points over second-place driver Will Power, drivers and teams are realizing that they’re running out of time to make up spots.

With a maximum of over 100 points on offer this weekend, the momentum could swing in any direction. Even Colton Herta, currently eighth place in the standings, could walk away from the weekend leading the championship. Though, this is unlikely, as he would have to win both races, lead the most laps, and qualify on pole both times. Even that wouldn’t be enough unless Ericsson DNFs in both races.

The point is, there is a real possibility that someone other than Ericsson could walk away from the weekend leading the championship standings, whether it’s Palou, Power, Newgarden, Dixon, or Pato O’Ward.

Then again, it’s also possible that Ericsson will hold onto his lead or extend it further.